Runt [ManxMan]

Chapter Six

He couldn't believe it. His brother was alive.

After he'd watched the pack drag his brother away thirteen winters before, he'd thought the worst. What was he supposed to expect? And then he saw how scarred and jaded many of the rogues and lone wolves he encountered were, and he knew it was because of pack wolves.

Pack wolves were the enemy, the only tangible enemy the omega knew. And now... he was wrong? Chase was here, alive and well, and he looked like he'd had a good life. He'd grown so much since the last time the omega had seen him. And he was so friendly with the big scary dominant wolves that had been surrounding him since he woke.

His side ached fiercely, but he pushed the thought away. He didn't care about the claw marks anymore; he'd lived through worse. His brother was alive! The only person he'd ever truly known, had trusted, was here, and nothing else mattered. Not the other omegas huddled in the corner, watching him with wide, fearful eyes, not whatever his brother was discussing with the dominant wolves, none of it.

The more he heard the human words, the more he remembered. He did recognize them after all. The muffled words from outside his den, the shouted words when he'd first woken in this strange place, those hadn't registered. But now, the soft, calm words, his brother's familiar voice, was making them easier to make out.

"What are we going to do with him now?" one of the dominants asked. The omega glanced up at the man. Unlike the others, he was not covered in strange material, which the omega saw as much more natural. He approved.

"He's staying here," Chase growled, shooting a glare at the larger man, who raised his hands in surrender.

"Okay, but he's bleeding everywhere, and if he won't let the healers near him he's going to bleed out."

"What?" Chase whipped back around to face his brother, his hands brushing through the omega's fur. The little wolf growled softly when the questing fingers caught in the fur matted to his side, and his brother stiffened. "What happened? Mav, what did you do?"

"Why do you assume I did something?"

"You found him!"

"He was already injured when I found him, it was the scent of blood that led me to his den. I never would have found the little hole in the ground if he hadn't been bleeding everywhere."

"Well, someone come help him." Chase turned toward the omegas, who glanced at each other, but no one moved forward, not even the otherwise confident woman at the front.

"Maybe if he shifted?" the large man in the middle of the room said. A commanding aura radiated from him, and it made the omega uncomfortable, but he found he preferred it to the auras of the other dominants, though he couldn't have explained why. It was... comforting, somehow.

Chase's careful hands rubbing his head brought his attention back to his brother. "What do you think, bud?" he asked. "Think you can shift for us?"

Shift? The omega didn't know what they wanted from him. He stared back at his brother, with no way to express his confusion.

"Do you think he understands us?" the man his brother had referred to as Mav asked.

"Of course, he understands us," his brother scolded, then paused. "Do you understand me, bud?"

The omega licked his brother's face. It was something they'd done when they were kids, a way for the omega to acknowledge his understanding of his brother's words.

Chase smiled and laughed, pushing the omega away and rubbing the spit from his face. "He understands."

The big man stepped forward and crouched next to Chase, all while the omega watched him warily. He didn't know what to make of him. Most dominant wolves made him very uncomfortable, his instincts constantly urging him to submit, and while that part didn't change, otherwise the big man made him feel... safe? Which only made him more confused and wary.